Fall has hit Lander, which means cooler weather, more precipitation, and that our seed collecting has come to an end. Except for the various Artemisia species and the occasional opportunistic collection, we have finished our Seeds of Success seed collecting. We managed to surpass our goal of 20 collections, and we are creating herbarium labels for our vouchers in preparation for sending our specimens out to the various herbaria.

Since we are spending less time monitoring potential collections, we have been able to help out with other projects around the office. We helped one of the fire guys by flagging juniper trees that are going to be cut down. The water-hogging junipers have recently started to encroach on areas of our field office that are used for grazing and are causing previously riparian areas to dry up. Rachael and I had polygons on our Trimble marking the areas that are going to be cleared, and our job was to flag the perimeter of the polygons so the cutting crew will know which areas need to be cut. We finished flagging the first three sections, and were gearing up for the last and largest section, which looked to be about 8 miles in circumference. However, we showed up to find that the polygon designated an area covered in sagebrush, with not a juniper in sight! Why someone thought that area might have junipers remains a mystery, but at least it saved us a lot of time.

The area we were supposed to be flagging- not a juniper in sight!

We also helped to conduct a survey in our field office of Ute ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis), one of the four plant species in Wyoming listed as Threatened or Endangered. We began the survey by driving 4 hours to a site near Casper that the plant is known to grow at so that we could see the plant in person before we began looking for it in our field office. When we reached the site, we spent 30 minutes searching the bank of a stream for the plant. The plant is less than a foot tall and grows among grasses and sedges that are almost twice its height, which makes it very difficult to spot. Eventually we found one, and then another, making our long drive worth it.

Spiranthes diluvialis

We spent two days visiting potential habitats in our field office. Not much is known about where the plant grows, but there are a lot of factors that eliminate habitat as potential, such as banks that are too steep, too alkaline, or too moist. We did find two orchids, but neither was the species we were searching for. The only way to differentiate Spiranthes diluvialis from other orchids is by its flowers. However, each individual plant can go several years between flowering events, so the survey will need to be conducted for several more years to ensure the survey is thorough and complete.

Since our mentor is a wildlife biologist, we have been helping him with some wildlife work as well. For the past week, we have been visiting previously mapped white-tailed prairie dog colonies in our field office to determine whether they are still active. We have also found some colonies that were created more recently, so we are mapping those by walking around the boundary with a Trimble GPS. This is quite a bit more difficult than it sounds. The white-tailed prairie dogs spread their holes out, so it is not always possible to stand at one hole and see the next one. One colony we mapped was over 3 miles in circumference, and we could walk for several minutes before finding another hole.

It has been interesting to get a sense of all the monitoring that is required for the sensitive species in our field office. As October approaches, our work will probably turn away from plants and more towards wildlife (and office work). Our mentor has some sage grouse related projects lined up for us, and we have been working on tidying up the loose ends for our Seeds of Success collections. Beyond that, we are excited to take on whatever projects come our way.

Bonus pictures:

Petroglyphs at Castle Gardens, a popular destination for visitors in our field office

When searching for plants, sometimes you find other surprises

Cirque of the Towers, one of our weekend backpacking destinations

Lara Grevstad

BLM Lander, WY